From Forces to Career Transition to Accounting Guru

Keith May originally from Skegness joined the Army in 1996 initially as a military clerk before completing his Management Accountancy training in 2012. Keith was a bank clerk before he joined the army and fancied a career change.

During his time in service Keith was deployed to Kosovo in 1999; Falkland Islands in 2000; Bosnia in 2003 and a very short deployment to Iraq in 2005. His final posting was as Project Accountant for Project ANEMOI – building accommodation blocks in Falkland Islands. After completing 22 years of service Keith thought this was the perfect opportunity to start a new path.

Keith was referred to XFE through Career Transition Partnership (CTP) for guidance and support after deployment. Keith attended a Self-Employment Awareness one-day course which inspired him to create Keith May Accounting Services. Keith’s father was an accountant and ran his own accountancy practice, Keith wanted to pursue a new career to follow in his father’s footsteps.

In his own words “I also wanted to be my own boss” says Keith.

Keith May Accounting Services provides bookkeeping, accounting, pay roll and tax services to both personal and business clients.

“I really enjoyed the one-day course and I know if I have an issue or question, there is someone always available to help me at XFE”.

Keith hit a few speed bumps along his business journey, working from home and not having an office to have walk in clients and struggling with website design.

“It’s difficult to make my website exciting – a retail business can show their latest wares on their site, however a tax return or spreadsheet doesn’t have the same wow factor!”

Keith says “understand your market and plan for every eventuality. Don’t expect to become a success overnight and don’t forget – research, research, research. Finally, you are not alone – don’t be afraid to ask for advice”.

If like Keith you too would like to run your own business and are considering self-employment, we run a series of free Self-Employment Discovery Workshops! Find out more via http://bit.ly/xfevents

X-Forces Enterprise (XFE)

Is an award-winning Community Interest Company that nurtures entrepreneurial ambition in the UK military community and are the official delivery partner to the governments Start Up loans scheme and the Careers Transition Partnership (MOD). XFE have supported over 1,300 entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and has helped thousands more through training, events and mentoring provisions. X-Forces.com